Alien
Let me say, as much as I would like to, this post is about plot and monsters, not the adverse special effects of '79. I just want to warn you though, the ending effects are pretty rough.
To begin, this movie bored me for the first 45 or so minutes. There was no urgency, I did not feel connected or concern for any of the characters, and I did not know half the crew's names except Parker until they all started to get killed. I always thought of this series as a Science-Fiction more than horror. I will say, I have not seen the original Alien since I was a kid, and as an adult, I was unimpressed with it. However, I will say that it touches very well on the horrifying aspect of being 10 months out from getting home isolated with a deadly creature on your ship. If you pause the movie and think about that thought, then it gets terrifying.
When I say nothing feels urgent, I mean that even when the ship went down, the crew was like, "oh, well." They landed on this strange planet, with horrid weather, and decided to venture out and explore it without a single care in the world for their surroundings, except Lambert, she has the common sense to be scared and uncomfortable. Then the movie dives into the greed of discovery. Who would have guessed scientists would put themselves in danger to be the ones who discover something first? No one, I know. Human ignorance is that they keep going. I will say, when the egg hatched and, excuse this but, flying vagina hooked onto Kane, that is the first time I felt any interest in seeing what happens next. I also want to note the slow-motion two-foot fall Kane takes through the mist was hilarious and my favorite part of this film.
The hatching creature was rather disturbing. The egg sounded like mac and cheese, it was covered in a slim, and opened up in a very non-comforting way. Something about the top of an egg making juicy noises as it splits into four sections is plain gross. When they bring Kane back to the ship, the sense of no urgency returns. They are merely like what is this thing and leave it on him. The urgency picks back up when the acid it has for blood starts eating through floors of the ship. That scene provided good suspense as the characters kept going lower and lower and the viewers were left wondering if it was going to eat through the hub or not. The urgency doesn't end there because once the crew returns to the room, the creature is off Kane's face. The whole team seemed to finally have their realization buckling in at this point. The shedding being found was also very pleasing because the, rather tiny, baby alien that ripped out of Kane, rather gruesomely scene too, then dipped on out is clearly growing at an accelerated rate. That fast growth sets nerves off. Is it like a goldfish? Will it keep growing until its surroundings prevent it from doing so?
Dallas' death in the air duct was very suspenseful and ended on a decent jump scare which is a pretty standard effect used in horror. Parker's mutilated body or the glimpse we got of it through Ripley was also horrific. I still feel this film is more science fiction; however, it does capitalize on some excellent techniques and characteristics of horror, as science fiction often does. Lambert's scream was rather chilling as well, considering the length and pitch it could be heard at. Might I also mention, it was rather angering that Ripley leaves Jonsie in the crate to get eaten as she runs off in terror. The race against the clock is another cliche I found myself thrown off by. Racing against a technological time bomb is overdone in mostly every genre it makes itself present. We all know something is going to go wrong, but we have to sit and listen to an automated voice until the minute mark it is meant to happen at. Imagine all the other possibilities for suspense that could have been capitalized here rather than the race against time. The alien outwitting the humans, closing off exits, trapping them, or even playing a twisted game with them. Any of those ideas of suspense would have worked better than a countdown, in my honest opinion.
And here we are at the ending. My streak of hatred picks back up. First, it was way too obvious the alien made its way onto her getaway shuttle. Not to mention, when she notices it sleeping, she hides in a closet, puts a suit on, and that made me think, "Great. She is gonna leave the cat AGAIN." A lot of my notes are riddled with poor language choice in describing Ripley. I thought she was an over-controlling character from her desire to make calls on the ship to the ending where she decides to retell her story. I think she pushed too hard, and that made her annoying to me as well. On one final note about her: the alien was just trying to catch a quick nap, and she had to be rude and wake it up.
To begin, this movie bored me for the first 45 or so minutes. There was no urgency, I did not feel connected or concern for any of the characters, and I did not know half the crew's names except Parker until they all started to get killed. I always thought of this series as a Science-Fiction more than horror. I will say, I have not seen the original Alien since I was a kid, and as an adult, I was unimpressed with it. However, I will say that it touches very well on the horrifying aspect of being 10 months out from getting home isolated with a deadly creature on your ship. If you pause the movie and think about that thought, then it gets terrifying.
When I say nothing feels urgent, I mean that even when the ship went down, the crew was like, "oh, well." They landed on this strange planet, with horrid weather, and decided to venture out and explore it without a single care in the world for their surroundings, except Lambert, she has the common sense to be scared and uncomfortable. Then the movie dives into the greed of discovery. Who would have guessed scientists would put themselves in danger to be the ones who discover something first? No one, I know. Human ignorance is that they keep going. I will say, when the egg hatched and, excuse this but, flying vagina hooked onto Kane, that is the first time I felt any interest in seeing what happens next. I also want to note the slow-motion two-foot fall Kane takes through the mist was hilarious and my favorite part of this film.
The hatching creature was rather disturbing. The egg sounded like mac and cheese, it was covered in a slim, and opened up in a very non-comforting way. Something about the top of an egg making juicy noises as it splits into four sections is plain gross. When they bring Kane back to the ship, the sense of no urgency returns. They are merely like what is this thing and leave it on him. The urgency picks back up when the acid it has for blood starts eating through floors of the ship. That scene provided good suspense as the characters kept going lower and lower and the viewers were left wondering if it was going to eat through the hub or not. The urgency doesn't end there because once the crew returns to the room, the creature is off Kane's face. The whole team seemed to finally have their realization buckling in at this point. The shedding being found was also very pleasing because the, rather tiny, baby alien that ripped out of Kane, rather gruesomely scene too, then dipped on out is clearly growing at an accelerated rate. That fast growth sets nerves off. Is it like a goldfish? Will it keep growing until its surroundings prevent it from doing so?
Dallas' death in the air duct was very suspenseful and ended on a decent jump scare which is a pretty standard effect used in horror. Parker's mutilated body or the glimpse we got of it through Ripley was also horrific. I still feel this film is more science fiction; however, it does capitalize on some excellent techniques and characteristics of horror, as science fiction often does. Lambert's scream was rather chilling as well, considering the length and pitch it could be heard at. Might I also mention, it was rather angering that Ripley leaves Jonsie in the crate to get eaten as she runs off in terror. The race against the clock is another cliche I found myself thrown off by. Racing against a technological time bomb is overdone in mostly every genre it makes itself present. We all know something is going to go wrong, but we have to sit and listen to an automated voice until the minute mark it is meant to happen at. Imagine all the other possibilities for suspense that could have been capitalized here rather than the race against time. The alien outwitting the humans, closing off exits, trapping them, or even playing a twisted game with them. Any of those ideas of suspense would have worked better than a countdown, in my honest opinion.
And here we are at the ending. My streak of hatred picks back up. First, it was way too obvious the alien made its way onto her getaway shuttle. Not to mention, when she notices it sleeping, she hides in a closet, puts a suit on, and that made me think, "Great. She is gonna leave the cat AGAIN." A lot of my notes are riddled with poor language choice in describing Ripley. I thought she was an over-controlling character from her desire to make calls on the ship to the ending where she decides to retell her story. I think she pushed too hard, and that made her annoying to me as well. On one final note about her: the alien was just trying to catch a quick nap, and she had to be rude and wake it up.
I originally was going to just gush about this movie, but having read your post, I took off my nostalgia goggles and realized you were right about the beginning. It really doesn't take off until Ripley doesn't want to let Kane in. I didn't notice how much of the movie had passed just setting up the aesthetic. Though, to be fair, the tech they use for aesthetic is pretty cool.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the cat didn't get killed. I was rooting for Jonsie to be the only one left alive. I was surprised that the xenomorph didn't kill the cat given the chance, but maybe it was too smart and left it as bait to make Ripley think she was safe? What do you think?
Maybe in some nature it sensed it was an animal, and not a life form like say a human. But there was that scene where it looked at the cat's crate and seemed to smile so maybe it did know it was some sort of distraction.
DeleteI know you two are gonna hate this, but I thought having the cat in the movie was kinda stupid. Why was there a cat with them? Bizarre. I think the sole reason for the cat was so that they could have the "jump scare" scene with it when they were looking for the alien and the cat jumped out.
DeleteYou know Shoe, I can't even lie and say I didn't think the same thing you just wrote when I was watching the film.
DeleteHey Alexis,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the pacing of ALIEN is the most dated part of the film. I watch it sometimes and it feels abysmally slow and then other times, the nightmare quality of it feels natural. Maybe it depends upon mood. I do think that if I was going to do a rewrite on the script, Ash's role would be better foreshadowed. Ripley is also a relatively unsympathetic character and I have never really decided if I like her or not. Obviously, she is much better in ALIENS. I think that if Giger had not been involved in ALIEN, the movie would be completely forgotten by now as an artifact of the 70's. I kind of think of ALIEN not as Ridley Scott movie but as a HR Giger movie. Scott has gotten a lot of work over the last three decades but he really is not a great director.
Hey Sean,
DeleteYeah, all around there were only bits of this film I actually enjoyed. Everyone raves it is so fabulous so when I watched it and started forming an opinion on it, I was thinking most of the comments I would get would be completely disagreeing with me. However, seems like most of our classmates are finding something not worthy in rewatching the film.